The present invention relates to a pattern data processing system configured for various kinds of patterns, such as characters and voices, on the assumption of multi-user. More particularly, it concerns a pattern data processing system having a learning function.
Also, the present invention relates to a pattern recognizing method of and system for executing a recognizing process of entered character and figure patterns.
There was proposed a prior art of pattern recognizing system in, for example, the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55-135973. The prior art is of learning method on the assumption of a particular, or a single, user. It executes learning of patterns given by the users in, for example, the way that necessary data are entered in a data base to process.
For the reason, the prior art has to be made to learn the patterns used in common by a plurality of users (members) of a group individually even if the common patterns are agreed by them. That is, if a mark or the like is to be used in common by the members of the group, to make it possible to enter it by hand-writing, the individual users who are the members of the group have to make it to be pattern-learnt.
As an example, the group uses a kana-kanji conversion of a word processor that is a tacit common agreement in the group. If a term xe2x80x9c*BISHAMONxe2x80x9d should be converted to xe2x80x9c*BISHAMON,xe2x80x9d for example, the term has to be entered individually. That is, to increase operationability of the own pattern data processing system, the user has to make by himself or herself, or ask another user to make the system learn the pattern. In other words, the operationability of the own pattern data processing system cannot be increased forever unless the user has to make, by himself or herself, or ask another user to make the system learn the pattern.
Therefore, to increase the operationability of the own pattern data processing system without making pattern learning by the user by himself or herself or asking another user to do it, it is a problem to allow another person of the group to use results of the pattern learning of the system.
It is preferable that the members of the group should learn tacit, or expressed, common agreements to omit their individual operations and increase the operationability. That is, a pattern data processing system for multi-user should be preferably made for generally wide use by not only a single user, but also a plurality of users.
For the purpose, there are problems: one is to extract patterns that would be used in common by a plurality of users of a group, and the other is to make the common patterns to be learnt as the ones belonging to the group.
Prior filing systems, such as the UNIX, are made to allow all the members of the group to read and write the files in the way that the files are prepared to have a group attribute. However, the prior filing system art alone has the disadvantage that a system manager of the group must make a plan in what a way and how data should be rewritten, or learnt by a dictionary, to increase the operationability.
There was proposed another prior art of pattern recognizing system in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 56-99583. This prior art is a method of obtaining a recognition result with use of a plurality of recognizing arrangements for respective characters to recognize them accurately depending on pattern. The method obtains candidates based on appearance rates. However, the method has the disadvantage that if the appearance rate is low, recognition cannot be made even at what a high accuracy a pattern is entered.
There was proposed still another prior art of pattern recognizing system in the Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-15911. This prior art is a method that a dictionary has description of what parts form what shape is. There was proposed still another prior art of pattern recognizing system in the Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 2-56689. This prior art discloses method is which a dictionary includes a description of what stroke are continuating of what shapes. These prior arts are based on that a recognition result can be made close to that of man or woman in the way that pattern recognition is made with use of parts of a pattern being formed of a joint or loop. However, the pattern recognizing system disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-15911 has the disadvantage that if a continuously hand-written character to be recognized has many curves as in hiragana, elongated or contracted parts of the character make it difficult to designate in advance what parts of the character are, resulting in wrong recognition. The pattern recognizing system disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-56689 has the disadvantage that a possible turbulence or distortion of the shape makes it difficult to judge what the shape is, resulting in wrong recognition.
The pattern data processing system of the present invention on the assumption of multi-user has the following three features.
The first feature of the present invention is a pattern data processing system, comprising: an input arrangement for receiving given patterns at least, a dictionary having data classified plurally for a plurality of users, a common dictionary, and a dictionary editing arrangement; wherein the dictionary has a group attribute of the users therein, if the pattern given through any of the input arrangements meets predetermined conditions the dictionary editing arrangement edits the data in the dictionary and enters the pattern and code corresponding to the pattern in the group dictionary, and the users having the same group attribute is accessible to the group dictionary.
In detail, the above-described first feature comprises an input arrangement having patterns entered therein, a dictionary having patterns, categories having the patterns belong thereto, and groups defined therein, an attribute designating arrangement for designating group attributes, such as user 1, user 2, group 1, group 2, and all members, a recognizing arrangement for receiving the entered pattern and group attribute before retrieving from among the patterns entered in the dictionary a pattern most similar to the entered one and having a corresponding group attribute to feed out the category, and a dictionary editing arrangement for extracting a pattern used in common by a group before editing the pattern, such as entering it in the common dictionary, with the group having the user made to belong thereto.
Operation of the first feature is described below. First, the entered pattern, such as a character, voice, or code string, entered through the input arrangement is fed to the recognizing arrangement together with the group attribute designated by the attribute designating arrangement. In turn, when receiving the entered pattern and the group attribute, the recognizing arrangement retrieves from among the patterns in the dictionary the pattern most similar to the entered one and having a corresponding group attribute before feeding out the category of the pattern belonging thereto. The category is a concept higher than the pattern and has at least one or more patterns belong thereto. If the entered pattern is a code string, the recognizing arrangement retrieving an entered pattern from among the patterns in the dictionary before feeding out a code indicating a process associated with the pattern. The dictionary editing arrangement checks contents of the dictionary before extracting a pattern that would be used in common by the group and enters the pattern with the group attribute of the pattern being the group. Therefore, even if the user belonging to the group does not enter the pattern by himself or herself, the first feature allows pattern recognition and pattern process with use of the pattern.
The second feature of the present invention is a pattern data processing system, comprising: a plurality of input arrangement for at least receiving given patterns, dictionaries for storing the entered patterns and one or a plurality of codes corresponding to the entered patterns with priorities, the dictionaries being provided for the respective input arrangements, and a dictionary look-up arrangement for retrieving a code corresponding to the pattern given through any of the input arrangement from among the dictionary corresponding to the input arrangement and the other dictionaries before feeding out one or a plurality of codes obtained as results of the retrieval and their priorities.
In detail, the above-described second feature comprises a plurality of input arrangement for entering patterns, dictionaries for storing the entered patterns and one or a plurality of codes corresponding to the entered patterns with priorities, the dictionaries being provided for the respective input arrangements, and a dictionary look-up arrangement for receiving the pattern entered through any of the input arrangements before retrieving a pattern coinciding with or mostly similar to the entered pattern from among the dictionary corresponding to the input arrangement and the other dictionaries before feeding out the code and its priority, wherein the dictionary look-up arrangement has dictionary priorities that are priorities preset for the dictionaries.
Operation of the second feature is described below. First, the pattern, such as a character, voice, or code string, entered through the input arrangement is fed to the dictionary look-up arrangement. In turn, when receiving the entered pattern, the dictionary look-up arrangement retrieves a pattern coinciding with or mostly similar to the entered pattern from among the dictionary corresponding to the input arrangement having entered the pattern and patterns existing in the other dictionaries before reassigning the code with a priority on the basis of the dictionary priorities that are priorities preset for the dictionaries to feed out. Therefore, even if the user does not enter the pattern by himself or herself, the second feature allows pattern recognition and pattern process with use of the pattern.
With assigning the priority on the basis of the dictionary priorities, the user can make a definition of his or her dictionary prior to that of the other dictionaries even if the own dictionary and the other user dictionaries have different codes for the same pattern.
The third feature of the present invention is a pattern data processing system, comprising: a plurality of input arrangement for at least receiving given patterns, dictionaries for storing the entered patterns and one or a plurality of codes corresponding to the entered patterns with priorities, the dictionaries being provided for the respective input arrangements, and a dictionary editing arrangement wherein if any of the dictionaries are updated, a relationship between the updated entered pattern and a code corresponding to the updated entered pattern is entered for the other dictionaries.
Operation of the third feature is described below. First, if the dictionary editing arrangement detects that data (an entered pattern and a code corresponding to the entered pattern with a priority) are updated after checking contents of the dictionaries, the arrangement enters the updated data into the other dictionaries having had not define the updated entered pattern. Therefore, if any of the users updates contents of the dictionary, the other users can use the updated data without entering the contents by themselves.
In turn, if an appropriate recognizing method is different depending on pattern, the pattern recognizing arrangement of the present invention that can increase accuracy of the recognition has the following feature.
The pattern recognizing system comprises a plurality of recognizing arrangements, a normalizing arrangement for normalizing distance values obtained by the recognizing arrangements, and a correct candidate deciding arrangement for deciding correct candidates on the basis of the normalized distance values. Even for the distance value obtained with use of the optimum recognizing arrangement for each pattern, or even for the distance value obtained in a different recognizing method, the distance value can be normalized so that recognition can be made accurately by reference to the distance value.
In turn, if parts of an entered patterns are elongated or contracted, the pattern recognizing arrangement of the present invention that can recognize accurately has the following feature.
The pattern recognizing system of the present invention comprises an input arrangement for entering a pattern, a normalizing arrangement for normalizing the pattern, an approximating arrangement for approximating the normalized pattern with broken lines, a dictionary for storing the dictionary patterns approximated with the broken lines, a distance calculating arrangement for comparing the entered pattern approximated with the broken lines with the dictionary pattern, and a distance sorting arrangement for sorting the dictionary patterns in terms of distance values from the entered patterns. The distance calculating arrangement is featured in having a range correspondence arrangement for making each element of the approximated entered pattern to correspond the respective elements of the approximated dictionary pattern, and a particular shape difference calculating arrangement for calculating a particular shape difference for evaluation of whether or not a particular shape formed of some elements of approximation results exists at a corresponding position of the dictionary pattern and entered pattern. The feature allows the pattern entered by the input arrangement to be normalized by the normalizing arrangement. The normalized pattern is approximated with broken lines by the approximating arrangement. The entered pattern approximated with the broken lines by the distance calculating arrangement and the dictionary pattern are compared with each other, The distance sorting arrangement sorts the dictionary pattern in terms of the distance value from the entered pattern as a recognition result.
The range correspondence arrangement that is a part of the distance calculating arrangement makes a range correspondence for each broken line of the entered pattern and the dictionary pattern, The particular shape difference calculating arrangement evaluates whether or not the particular shape of the dictionary pattern exists at a position corresponding to the entered pattern before compares the input pattern with the dictionary pattern. That is, the range corresponding arrangement can absorb such a deformation as partial elongation or contraction. Also, the particular shape difference calculating arrangement can absorb such deformations as shape turbulence and distortion. Hence, the features can make correct pattern recognition.